The AAO Exhibit Hall is an exciting experience. It is always filled with everything imaginable that is eye-related. You can find the latest instrumentation, the latest treatments, journals and other resources, even ties and scarves with eyeballs galore. Dr Tafoya and I tend to go to our favorites. We stop by Carl Zeiss Meditec to see our rep Scott Tucker. We visit the Ophthalmic Photographer’s Society to see their collection of masterpieces. And then we shop for one or two particular items.

This year I looked for Charisse Toale of iMatters. I knew her before I was an administrator and she was a business owner when Doctor was in residency in Florida. A few years back I attended an AAOE class and realized that she was the instructor. Since then I have followed iMatters on Facebook and used their services to try to find staff members. She also offers tech training programs that I plan to explore. I also found my friend Dan Binz. He is an optometrist and co-founder of the company that makes Acuity Pro. I wish that his system fit in our practice, but for now it does not. We also like to stop by Genentech’s booth. Their eyeball movie theater is amazing!

My favorite booth this year belonged to MDIntellesys. Every year their booth gets larger and larger. I am not familiar with booth dimensions, but I know that when we were shopping for EHR (electronic health record) software their booth consisted of pretty much a banner; a table; and a large monitor. This year’s booth had many monitors and areas to showcase their EHR as well as areas for customer service. MDIntellesys and their owner/founder Dan Monzka, MD deserve their success. It is a pleasure to see them grow!